Fisherman pulls fake handgun from Boston Harbor

E-mail | Print | Comments () 09/24/2012 12:49 PM

Alberto Pina

Even under the barnacles, the sinister shape can be seen.

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By Sarah N. Mattero, Globe Correspondent

A man who took his three-year-old son out fishing at Carson Beach found something other than a wriggling sea creature at the end of his fishing line — a barnacle-encrusted handgun.

Or so he thought.

Alberto Pina, 37, of Roxbury, reached by phone this morning, referred the Globe to a blog-type post on FORCV, a Cape Verdean news website where he detailed his adventure.

After casting for about 30 minutes, Pina felt something heavy at the end of his line, he wrote. After reeling in his prize, he was briefly puzzled by the weirdly-shaped object he had pulled out of the water, but when he saw it looked like a gun, Pina notified authorities.

“Within 20 minutes, the place looked like a crime scene,” he wrote, with three police cars with flashing lights, officers, detectives, and a SWAT team member.

Pina was interviewed by police, while the investigation of the possible firearm took place. His son had a good time running around and talking to the many officers who responded to the call, he reported.

After examining the object, which Pina said took about 40 minutes, detectives determined the firearm to be a plastic replica and it was then disposed of, Boston police said.

Sarah N. Mattero can be reached at sarah.mattero@globe.com.